I'm On It

We’re getting there! After today’s shoot, I’m even more psyched than ever about putting this project together. Today we shot two scenes. One with the bats, and one with the owl. The bats were so cute and wicked, they are sure to be stand out characters in our project. Our bats performed in the perfect blend of scary/cute/fun. My head was full of ideas about sound and light effects I’m going to use for this scene. I’m looking forward to editing it! The owl was great, too. Our actress was spot on in her delivery, attitude and motherly-ness. It was a real treat to capture. I have a few days until our next scenes, so I’m going to try and catch up on some other work. But, after today, it’ll be hard to focus on anything other than this project! Just as a recap, this project is part of an anti-bullying effort for a local school district. Its intended audience is the students of the district in grades K-4, so it has to be fun, funny and still get the message across...

Today we shot the final scene of “A Caterpillar’s Tale”. Not the last scene I have to shoot, just the last scene in the program. It was, by far, the most complicated, involving actors interacting with a puppet that has most of the lines, a dozen ensemble actors, a dance number and character make-up. The thing that kept me awake at night leading up to this shoot was the amount of actors in the scene, and how I was going to manage making sure they hit their marks, delivered their lines and kept the energy up through multiple takes. It turns out that it was the actors themselves that made it such a great experience. The ability to stand and deliver a line, and their willingness to do it well, made all the difference. Many of the actors in this production learned their craft under the tutelage of Bonnie and John Ryerson of the Pied Piper Youth Theater, www.pipertheater.org , and Bonnie and John have taught them well. Some even came from rehearsals of a PPYT production, to le...

Three things that I never thought I would ever say to my children: 1: Don't play with the rats 2: Now, I want all of the sweetness and light gone from you 3: Become one with the caterpillar Well, I said all of that and more today as my daughter joined two other fine young actors to play the Three Witches in "A Caterpillar's Tale". After transforming my living room into a cross between a hidden corner of Wes Craven's mind and Liberace's breakfast nook, we waited for our actors to arrive. The wonderful Geri Hamilton, who also provides the voice of the Crabapple in another scene, arrived with our actors in tow. She set to work immediately, handling hair and make-up chores, transforming three lovely young ladies into three gorgeous gypsies. Add to that the costumes Gina Davis and I collaborated on choosing for each, along with her work on our daughter's styling, and we were ready to film a pivotal scene. Cue the caterpillar! Gina and I were ...

It was 93 degrees f today, and I had a half dozen kids marching up and down my driveway, screaming their heads off. Why? Because they were the "villagers" storming the castle of the Evil Scientist in our production. Good sports all, they dutifully hit their marks and created a scene that, most likely, lead to a few head-scratching moments among my neighbors. Aside from a sad face or two when it was discovered that I only had one pitchfork among the rakes and shovels they carried, these kids took a small scene in the script and gave it life... as only kids can. While their moms looked on from the top of the hill, they performed well, even as I sent them back to their starting places with a cry of "Great! That was terrific! Let's do it again!" Production Manager Gina Davis brought it all together, as she and Margo Mueller put the finishing touches to the costumes, walking a fine line between poor, angry villagers and flat out hobos. A special shout o...

After five months of pitching, cajoling, lining up resources and generally annoying many people around me, I finally secured funding for a video project. Having done an anti-bullying video aimed at mid/high school aged kids last year, I wanted to do one for the younger students. After all, habits and beliefs about what is and is not socially acceptable begin early. They are usually learned by absorbing attitudes toward bullying, ("Boys will be boys", "Girls are just mean," or "When I was a kid, you just..."), and those ideas begin to form a child's core beliefs about the world in which they are expected to fit in and get along. So, I wanted to help. Having created a few video programs centered around the winter holidays, my first thought was to go back to that well. As I began to explore options, I realized that my mindset was simply to rehash all of those things I had seen and watched many, many times over the years. Yawn. Then, I decided to...